We all have opportunities and we all lose them as well. It's normal because no one tells us these. Like a boy who touches a candle flame to feel the heat, someone misses the cream as well. The best Engineers need not be always the luckiest nor the lowest technician be the worst brain, it's all on our own mindset and preparedness.
The Lobby Minute
You cross someone in the Lobby or get noticed or get introduced to – could be your own CEO, perhaps a CEO of another organization, perhaps a corporate influencer, etc. You get anywhere 20 to 30 seconds. Or say a minute. It's that one chance for you to talk of you. So, do you have a standard voice mode, the tone and the words to share
Who you are
Where you work (and if not then how do you describe yourself)
What’s your one strength and area of the profession that you are great at and you love to do.
Your accomplishment that you want to share
And importantly – one backfire on the person to shower praise him/her (it can be common line knowing all successful and important seniors have this – their commitment, their blog, their discipline, etc)
The Coffee Minute
As you pick your coffee at the pantry – or perhaps just outside the wash area or perhaps post-meeting you get into the elevator – or perhaps the social party evening - and you get caught with your Boss for a minute. Especially when you have that urge to talk of yourself, of your promotion, or could be just your good work proposal, you want to shine off and get that casual talk off.
How do you say Hello
How and what non -business questions/topics can you talk
How do you engage and leave an impact
At those times, it's important to be smart to have your casual talk prepared that can elevate your professional visibility to your Boss. It could be even the VP of your toughest end-user area.
The Network Minute
You get to meet so many professionals in the network. Be it at your own internal organizational get-together or professional networking – or even the webinars these days. In fact, webinars mean perhaps your voice is to a professional from another country, another profession or another level, another sector.
What will be the introduction. How will you spend that minute in delivering the essence of you as a person, your work, your need of the hour, your geo-background and leave an impression of your ability and competency?
Elevating yourself
For everything above, you need confidence and the elevated pitch. Confidence comes from Information + Idea. Obviously, you will find people who are natural talkers and let us ignore them for a minute. You and I are not natural talkers and that’s why we need confidence.
Information:
Information gives us the internal note of high feel to talk if so required. Information comes from reading newspapers, knowing the political highs, the global things around, your own professional updates (for us it is supply chain) and the local news for sure. A bit of knowledge of currency movement, oil and gold price movements, industry trends, etc. helps build ourselves. We don’t need precise numbers but we need to be able to know trends and nearest periodic movement.
Ideas:
Don’t hesitate to be part of a group – be it in your own organization or your circles. Professional discussions, even informally can enable thinking mind and vocal voice.
Listening and silent will not help. Often, our ego not to share, our shyness not to speak, our attitude of who cares does not impact the group but individual.
If you are not confident to make a talk or presentation, you still might be able to engage yourself and your mindset by moderating a discussion. A moderator starts a question or discussion and influences others to speak.
Do not forward Videos or Image clips just because they are most vital unless it needs originality (like an ad). Otherwise, read it, understand it and share your thought (and then attach) – Often, wise professionals ignore both the sender and the images if not supplemented by thoughts. And many others will never open for want of data package. Build your relevance by adding/sharing thoughts or summary.
Professional Expertise:
Choose an area to build your expertise – anywhere within the end to end supply chain.
Knowledge gain to the chosen area. Read. Ask. Gain. Attend. Compare with others. Experiment. Practice.
Always be asking to yourself “Can I change something even slightly to make it better?”
Always record pain points – often we just get over somehow but do not find ways to innovate or avoid in future.
Finally, think, act and work strategically no matter what your job level or title is. Anything and everything can be driven strategically.
Hariharan Laxminarayan is a procurement Professional with 25 years’ experience. He is an active member of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS), being a Chartered FCIPS, CIPS Global Congress Member and Chair at CIPS UAE - Northern Emirates. And a person I am happy to have as a friend and mentor for the past several years.
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